


Bailey Dickinson, The Blue Backpack, and The Importance of Names

by Robinwing



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: All OCs except for Neville and a cameo by our favourite half-giant Hagrid, Gen, Hogwarts being terrifying for an 11 year old Muggleborn, I am a crybaby I managed to cry writing this, Neville Longbottom being the best teacher, Neville is taking the kids to the sorting because Flitwick's off with the flu shhhh, No Angst, No Romance, No Spoilers, No shipping whatsoever, Or mild angst? Child being scared about a new school angst, See if you can spot the Narnia quote, Sorting, The Blue Backpack of treasures, The importance of knowing names, This thing's working title was No Title We Die Like Men, implied autism, kids being kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 14:15:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11945991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robinwing/pseuds/Robinwing
Summary: Bailey Dickinson got a letter a few weeks ago that told her she was a witch. Since then, she's been looking forward to going to Hogwarts, and getting more and more excited. However, now that she's here, she might not be quite as gung ho as she was on the train...





	Bailey Dickinson, The Blue Backpack, and The Importance of Names

Hogwarts was taller than Miller Primary. But it didn’t have as many windows. Bailey bit her lip and glanced around at the rest of the small boat. The daylight was dimming into dusk, turning what she imagined was a very blue lake in the day, black. As she looked forward in her seat, with her back to the imposing structure, she could see the trail of lights leading back to the other end of the lake. They blocked out the boats they were on, floating like ghosts. The other three in her boat were chattering excitedly and shifting carelessly. A particularly hard jostle made her grip the greening wood desperately. Could they all swim? Was she the only one nervous of the tall towers, the deep lake, and the dark shadowy corners?

She’d been excited for this for weeks. One letter and her whole world and future had changed. Heck, even her past had changed a bit, now that there was an explanation for all the odd things she could do. But, now that she was looking up at it, she sorely missed having her mum to drop her off. And having Laura to talk to. She’d never even been on a bus by herself.

She looked up through her lashes at her boat mates. Three boys who seemed to already be friends, given the way they hadn’t bothered to include her in any way. All they could talk about was what houses they hoped to be sorted into. Gryffindor, Slytherin, it was all still Greek to Bailey. She folded her arms around herself, tried to rap her robe tighter. She’d wanted to bring her bright blue backpack with her, but the large grey haired man told her it had to stay on the train. She hugged herself tighter, missing it. It had her most important things in it, her hairbrush, her Jessie Bear, her torch and her fairytales. Her mum always said to keep the precious things close, so they can’t get lost.

But now they weren’t close. What if they did get lost? What if somebody saw the babyish things she cherished and threw them away? She could feel tears welling up. She could maybe replace her torch and her hairbrush, if she could find a good one, but there was only one book of fairytales with her mum’s note in it. And the thought of Jessie Bear all alone wherever the rubbish went in this castle made Bailey want to curl into a ball and sob.

It was just as her thoughts were spiralling and the tears were running down her cheeks that the boat finally bumped into the dock under the castle. She jumped and finally looked up. It was even darker here, which did nothing for her nerves. It was a fairly plain dock, grey and wet, with a path that wound out one side and up around towards the castle. As the boats assembled by the dock, a number of children started climbing out. Towards one end, she could see the large grey bushel of the man called Hagrid waving a lantern to show kids where was.  
“Follow me!” He called out in his booming voice.

The three boys leapt off the boat with grace and enthusiasm, hurrying straight up to the giant man. Other children soon followed, rushing up the incline. But then, one stopped, a dark girl with a halo of hair, barely contained as a facsimile of a ponytail. She stared at Bailey, as the latter girl stayed put on the boat, staring at her knees. She approached.  
“You alright there, luv?” She asked. Bailey finally looked up through her still teary eyes.  
“I’m not sure how to get out without tipping it,” Bailey really didn’t want to slip into the water. She couldn’t see how deep it was this close to land. “I don’t know how to swim.”  
“Well, here,” The other girl looked about her feet for a moment, nodded firmly to herself. And firmly planted her left foot onto a stone in the water, about ankle deep. She held out her hands to Bailey.  
“You grab on, and I’ll pull you up. That way, all we can lose is the boat if you fall,” She grinned widely at Bailey’s shocked look.  
“But, your foot,” Bailey protested, but the dark girl shook her head firmly.  
“I’ll live with squelching,” She said. “I’m Grace, by the way.”

Bailey stared at her for a long moment, but took her hands. She stood, unsteadily, and turned to the side. She reached out with one foot. As she was settling her weight, Bailey came to a decision. She finally lifted her weight up and planted her own right foot. On the same rock Grace was stood on. Grace looked down right away at the splash.  
“Oh, here now…” She started, but Bailey smiled up at her.  
“I’ll live with squelching,” Bailey echoed. “I’m Bailey.” She shifted up onto dry land, finally, helping pull Grace up on the way.

They followed the end of the line up the hill to the front entrance to the castle. The front had more in the way of windows, as two large ones flanked the door. Up the front steps there stood a rather short, stocky man with dark hair she’d not seen, and behind him, the tall, imposing castle door. He shuffled about and looked down at a stack of paper in his hands, as if…

As if he was nervous too.

The children assembled in front of the nervous man, who Bailey could now see had been watching her and Grace. It even looked like he was halfway through the crowd, like he was going to come check. But, as the two finally assembled themselves, with repetitive wet sounds from their shoes, he relaxed and moved back to the front of the group. Hagrid stood looking at him, perplexed.  
“Y’know, usually, McGonagall would jus’ wait inside.” He commented. His voice was quite loud, no matter how quiet he tried to be. The smaller man shrugged and said something back, but his voice was far quieter. Finally, Hagrid nodded and moved back.  
“Well, Professor Longbottom, I leave the firs’ years to you.” He boomed cheerily, as he stepped out of the way so that Professor Longbottom could lead the kids inside.

“Alright,” Professor Longbottom said as he led them onto a cobblestone floor, lit by torches. “Welcome to Hogwarts, everyone.” An ornate marble staircase dominated the room, leading up to higher floors, though the ceiling seemed impossibly high as well.  
“The start-of-term banquet will start soon, but before you sit down in the Great Hall, you’ll be sorted into your houses. The Sorting’s an important ceremony, since your house will be like your family in Hogwarts. You’ll have classes with your house, you’ll sleep in your house dormitory and you’ll spend free time in your house common room,” He finally paused. “Well, not just there, we used to spend free time anywhere we weren’t explicitly forbidden really.”

He shuffled the paper in his hands and glanced down at it. He nearly walked into the doorframe for his troubles. In the pause, Bailey finally caught the murmur of conversation on the other side of the door as the first years assembled in the room.  
“Ah, the four houses are Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff,” Professor Longbottom continued. “They’re all good houses with history and some great witches and wizards. While you’re here, you can earn points for your house, and win the House Cup, which is a great honour. But, if you break rules, your house will lose points,” They all gathered into the room and stopped. “Now, if you’ll all tidy yourselves up and get ready to line up, I’ll come back for you once everything’s ready,” He finished, and the children started to murmur between themselves.

Bailey shuffled. It sounded like the rest of the school were out there. She tugged on Grace’s sleeve as the other girl fussed with her curls.  
“You don’t think it’s alphabetical, do you?” She muttered. Grace paused.  
“I’m Grace Abbot, what about you?” She whispered back.  
“Dickinson,” Bailey said with wide eyes. She really didn’t like the idea of this now. She could see her hand on Grace’s sleeve was starting to shake. She’d just made a friend, and now she’d have to walk out in front of the whole school by herself, just as she feared. What if she fell? Or… What if The Sorting was done by a test and she failed? Would they send her back home? If they did, would Jessie Bear…

Bailey’s vision blurred again, and she let go of Grace’s sleeve to fold her arms around herself again. She could hear Grace asking what was wrong, but she was busy trying to get her tears under control so she could respond. Then she felt a presence beside her. Professor Longbottom was looking down at her with concern.  
“Are you alright?” He waited patiently until Bailey could respond.  
“I’m scared, and my bag’s gone and Jess… My things are in there and I don’t want to lose them if I have to go home and Grace goes before me and what if we’re in different houses, I don’t even know anybody else’s name…” It all came out in a rush between now emerging sobs. Professor Longbottom crouched down so he was looking up at Bailey, and smiled gently.  
“First of all, you’re not going to have to go home on the first day. Believe me, you’d think some people were trying some years,” He stood back up. “Second, I came back because I wanted to add that you’ll all want to make some friends in different houses. They’ve each got different traits and different kinds of people in them, and having friends who are only ever one kind of people isn’t really… Great.” He ended, somewhat lacklustre.

He bent down again.  
“And lastly,” He said, low enough for only her to hear. “Your bag. Will you feel better if you can see it?” Bailey nodded vigorously. Professor Longbottom nodded once in return, and stood back up. He headed back over to the door. Bailey whiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her robe.  
“Right, I’ll just be a minute.” He disappeared through. Bailey looked around at the rest of the first years, all looking at her after her meltdown. Her shoulders climbed up to her ears and she could feel her cheeks redden further. She tried to straighten up and lift her chin in spite of it.  
“My name’s Callum, by the way,” A small Irish voice piped up nearby. Bailey looked over, but she couldn’t pick out the boy who said it. She gave a grateful smile in the general direction anyway.  
“I’m Diggory!” Shouted another boy, nearer the front.  
“Whoah, that’s a funny name,” Responded a girl near him. “I’m Polly!”  
“Well, it’s not half as funny as Polly,” Sniffed the boy. It quickly devolved into something of a small argument, but it made Bailey laugh.

Finally, Professor Longbottom returned, and lined them up in alphabetical order. It turned out Bailey was only three names ahead of Diggory, with Polly right behind him. They filed out into the scrutiny of the rest of the school. However, Bailey found herself not hunching, or caring as her shoe squelched loudly with every other step. She was too distracted by the Great Hall and it’s beauty. Hundreds of candles floating under what looked like the open air. How was it so warm in here if it was open to the elements?

A hat sat at the front of the room. And sang. Alright then.

“Abbot, Grace,” Professor Longbottom called out. Wow, she was even the first name. Bailey leaned sideways to look around the other students, and caught Grace’s eye for a split second. Grace smiled and winked as she all but skipped up to the hat. Silence fell, as if everyone were straining to hear the hat’s deliberation. A long moment passed.

“GRYFFINDOR!”

The table on the far left cheered, and several older students stood up to move and make room for Grace as she jogged over to them. On her way, she threw Bailey a quick thumbs up and a smile. Bailey smiled back, but now it was somewhat wobbly. More children were called forth, the hat placed on their heads until it called out a house. Then the table of that house would cheer and welcome their new housemate.

“Dyer, Robert.” Finally, Bailey was at the front of the line. And she saw it.

Her bright blue backpack, sat innocently in front of an empty chair under the front table, half behind one of its legs. It was a bit open, just enough that she could see a corner of her book of fairytales, and Jessie Bear’s shadow. With a big sigh of relief, she let Ravenclaw’s applause wash over her, until…

“Dickinson, Bailey.”

She smiled at Professor Longbottom as she approached the stool. She tried to make sure he saw, before she put on the hat, how much she appreciated that he made sure her backpack was safe. And finally, he placed the hat on her red hair.

“Well,” She nearly fell off the stool upon hearing the unexpected voice in her head. “You’ve had quite a night haven’t you,” The hat had a nice enough voice. Creaking and croaky, like the old leather it was made from, but it was still a bit unnerving to have a hat talk inside your head.  
“Yes, sir, sorry, sir,” She responded. The hat laughed.  
“No need to apologise. Alright, now, let’s see…” The hat trailed off. “Not a bad mind… Not terribly ambitious, I’m sorry to say, but certainly been facing some fears today…”  
“I’m sorry, excuse me, Mr Hat?” Bailey asked silently. The hat paused for a long moment, as if unused to backtalk.  
“Yes?” It responded.  
“I’m sorry if this is rude, but could I be in Gryffindor? My friend, Grace, she’s there,” Bailey said. The hat gave another croaky laugh.  
“Now that’s something that’s not happened for a while…” The hat responded. “But, I must say… It’s a very loyal thought. And your attachment to that bag of yours, also founded on loyalty. In fact… I dare say most of what you do seems motivated by loyalty.”  
“Does that mean…?” Bailey began to ask, but was interrupted. She could see the rest of the students starting to look around at each other and murmur. Was it supposed to take this long to be sorted?  
“Plus a sense of justice that’ll put your socks in the lake because it’s only fair when Grace did it for you. And don’t you worry about that Grace child, she may not be in the same house,” Uh oh. Bailey made to interrupt, but the hat just kept ploughing on.  
“But she’s a tenacious young thing, she’ll make sure to find time for you. As will you. Now, it’s high time you get to your table, before we make you a hatstall. Better be…”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

A sudden roar rose from Hufflepuff table, almost louder than Gryffindor had been. Apparently that last shout had been for everyone to hear. Huh, so did everyone get a chat like that? Bailey quickly glanced at Grace, and smiled to see her new friend clapping and giving Bailey another thumbs up. They’d find time to be friends without being in the same house. The hat had said, after all.

She finally looked back to where she was going, and was surprised to see a good chunk of Hufflepuff table on their feet. Two people, an older boy and girl, even stepped out of Hufflepuff table to collect her.  
“First Hufflepuff of the year!” Crowed the girl, throwing her arm around Bailey’s shoulders. Bailey quickly glanced back over her shoulder as she was led away, to see Professor Longbottom discreetly nudge her backpack further under the table with his foot. He winked at Bailey conspiratorially, and Bailey smiled. Maybe Hogwarts wouldn’t be such a scary place after all.


End file.
